Tim Verge recently completed his 11th season as the head coach of men’s and women’s swimming teams at Shippensburg University. The Raiders have developed a reputation for outstanding academic and athletic excellence consistently during this time.
This past academic year the women recorded the highest overall team GPA on campus for the second consecutive year, while the men recorded the highest team GPA of all men’s athletic teams. The women were also again among the top 5 teams in the nation for Division II swimming continuing their string of five consecutive semesters achieving this distinction. In the spring of 2008, Shippensburg ranked third in all of Division II. They recorded an outstanding 12 PSAC Scholar-Athletes Awards which was over one half of the program.
The Raiders have also established themselves as one of the premier programs in Division II in the pool as well. During Verge’s tenure, the program has produced over 45 All-American honors while setting 12 new university records. Both teams consistently finish among the top 5 in the PSAC with the men having a run of recent consecutive 3rd place finishes in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and the women finishing 5th in 2006 and 4th in 2007 and 6th in 2008, just 13 points out of 5th.
They’ve had several conference champions with Mike Owen most recently winning conference titles in the 500 and 1000 freestyles in 2007 with the 1000 coming in PSAC record time. Verge was named PSAC Men’s Coach of the Year in 2007. Last year both teams were ranked among the top 20 in the NCAA Division II Dual Meet Rankings.
Verge was a member of the Shippensburg men’s swimming team from 1986-89, serving as co-captain his senior year when the Red Raiders placed fourth at the NCAA Division II Swimming Championships, the highest finish in school history.
He has been coaching college swimming for 20 years. After his swimming career, Verge became an assistant coach at Edinboro University for three seasons from 1989-92. While there, the Fighting Scots had three-straight NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championship appearances, finishing in the top-20 each time.
In 1992, Verge moved to Northern Arizona University as an assistant, helping them to a Pacific Coast Conference swimming championship for both men and women in 1994. After two seasons, he left to become the assistant women’s swimming coach at Arizona State University where the team placed 12th at the NCAA Division I Swimming Championships in 1995.
With the Sun Devils, Verge worked with Beata Kaszuba who became the first woman to break one minute in the 100 breaststroke, posting a time of 59.71 in 1995. He also had four swimmers qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Following his brief stint at ASU, Verge accepted his first head coaching position at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio in August 1995. While with the Eagles, Verge coached more than 20 individuals who won more than 60 All-America honors, including two national champions. David Kalange won the 200-yard butterfly in 1996 while Jamie McDaniel won the 50-yard freestyle in 1997 and the 50 and 100 free national titles in 1998. McDaniel was the first woman to go sub-23 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle at the NCAA Division II Swimming Championships and broke two national records. She was named Division II Women’s Swimmer of the Year in 1998.
Ashland placed in the top 10 at the NCAA Division II National Championships 3 times during Verge’s tenure. The men were 4th in 1996, while the women placed 7th in 1997 and 9th in 1998. They broke over 20 school records as well and the men captured the
GLIAC Championship in 1998.
A member of the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) and the CSCAA, Verge served as the meet director for the NCAA Division II Swimming Championships hosted by Ashland University in 1998. He is also a past recipient of the ASCA Certificate of Excellence and is an ASCA Level 5 coach, the highest level possible.
Verge earned his bachelor of arts in psychology from Shippensburg in 1989 and his M.Ed. in counseling with emphasis in college student personnel from Northern Arizona in 1996. He and his wife, Staci, live in Shippensburg, where Verge is also a volunteer firefighter with the Vigilant Hose Company of Shippensburg.
